Panthers win first Eastern championship, ending UVM's 28-year winning streak

Panthers win first Eastern championship, ending UVM’s 28-year winning streak{mosimage}The Middlebury College Panthers put an exclamation point on a stunning season Saturday, winning their first Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association championship.

Under sunshine and blue skies on its home trails at the Snow Bowl and the Rikert Ski Touring Center, Middlebury won three of four events on Saturday, padding its opening-day lead and delighting the hometown crowd.

“Winning is great,” said Panther freshman Lindsay Brush moments after her victory in the women’s giant slalom, “but winning on the home hill, you can’t beat it.”

The University of Vermont Catamounts fought off Dartmouth for second place, but that was little consolation for a program that had won every EISA title since 1976. The 28-year streak stood as the NCAA’s longest active run of consecutive conference titles.

This winter, the trophies belong to Middlebury. The Panthers waited 21 years to win a carnival, then won five times in six weeks. They did it with balance and consistency rather than with fireworks — Brush’s and Fred Emich’s GS wins were only the team’s second and third first-place finishes all season.

“We all know we can charge and not have to worry about blowing out because we can count on our teammates,” said Middlebury’s Eric Rygg, who finished second by 0.18 seconds to Emich. “That’s half the battle. If you can eliminate the pressure, you can be fast.”

The women’s cross-country team has been fast all year. A four-point win over Dartmouth in the 10-kilometer classical race Saturday was the Panthers’ 10th victory in 11 tries. Kate Newick’s third-place finish behind New Hampshire’s Kate Underwood and Dartmouth’s Alison Crocker led a 3-4-8-10 performance by the Panthers.

“We had the best fall training and a great winter. It was the year to do it,” said Newick, one of 14 seniors on the roster. “It feels great.”

Underwood, the UNH sprite, has enjoyed her own grand finale with five podium finishes, including a pair of wins. “It’s my senior year, and I wanted to give it a good shot,” she said. “I trained very hard so I could produce something good this season.”

UVM’s powerful men’s team won the 15km race. Lowell Bailey ended teammate Ethan Foster’s two-year classical winning streak, nipping him by 4.6 seconds, but the Cats’ 1-2-6-7 finish did little to slow UVM’s slide. By the time the crowd headed up the road to the Snow Bowl, UVM had slipped behind Dartmouth into third place.

The giant slalom provided the Cats’ a last gasp. UVM’s women were unbeaten in the event this year, and the Cats’ Paul Epstein and Matt Knittle were the top-ranked GS men, but Middlebury snuffed out any comeback plans by dominating the races on the Allen trail.

Brush and Jessica Smith sandwiched UVM’s Jamie Kingsbury on the podium on the women’s side, and Emich and Rygg led a 1-2-4-6-7 romp on the men’s, with Knittle (third) and Epstein (fifth) preventing a sweep.

“I’m from California, and this is a California day,” said Rygg, squinting through the sunshine. “For both Freddy and I, this is our last carnival. It’s just a really special feeling to go out like this.”

The Panthers, the Cats and the rest of the EISA circuit now turn their attention west. The 51st NCAA Championships open March 10 at California’s Sugar Bowl and Donner Summit.

— The Burlington, Vt., Free Press